


Hold Me

by goldenwanderer



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-28
Updated: 2013-05-28
Packaged: 2017-12-13 06:56:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/821354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenwanderer/pseuds/goldenwanderer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a fight, Han and Leia reconcile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold Me

**Author's Note:**

> This written in the fall of 2009, but was never published anywhere. It was inspired by the moments just after Luke and Leia's conversation in the Ewok village in Return of the Jedi, but it really could take place at any time. In fact, this piece is generic enough that it could apply to lots of different couples. But it was originally written for Han and Leia, so that's what I'm posting it as.

It isn’t much of an argument – not like most of their arguments ever are, anyway. There are no insults or taunts. There is no yelling or teasing or name-calling. In fact, it could not be considered an argument at all, for arguments require the contributions of two people, and for all that she would like to speak, the words simply will not come out of her mouth.

She is not ready to speak – not just yet. Today, she received some news – news that will take time for her to digest. She would share her news with him, but she finds she cannot. This is partly because she still needs time to deal with the news by herself; it is partly because her trust in him has not been rebuilt enough yet. When she is ready, she will tell him… but not yet.

Still, he is upset that she will not tell him what plagues her. And he knows that something plagues her; he is not stupid. Old worries and fears and jealousies spring to the surface when she tells him that she cannot tell him what is going on, and he reverts back to his old, cynical, nasty self. He immediately places the blame on her – as though it is all her fault, as though there is no reason why she should not trust him with her secret.

She takes his accusations without a word. 

She does not know what else to do. She fears that he will leave again – fears it more than anything else in the world – but still nothing will come out of her mouth. 

She turns away from him. Tears begin to well up in her eyes. Once, long ago, before he left, she did not cry easily. Now, though he has returned to her, there is little stopping the tears.

He begins to walk away, frustrated and confused.

But then he stops.

None of this trouble is her fault. He cannot blame her for not wanting to share her secrets with him. After all, she is not the one who left. She is not the one who caused the separation that has divided them for so long. She is not the one whose pride and fear of commitment overcame her in the end. 

She is the one who loved him even when he left. She is the one who pursued him throughout the separation that has divided them for so long. She is the one who overcame her own fears and doubts and pride and refused to give up, even when she had no reason to hope. 

She is the reason he came back.

And now he is walking away from her.

He stumbles back. 

He will not leave again like this.

He cannot.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

The words are simple, and hardly unique. They have been said a million times, by a million tongues, for a million reasons. But rarely do these words leave the lips of either him or her. He and she are usually too proud for that. 

He wonders if that, perhaps, is their downfall.

She turns her head toward him, the tears still staining her face. She still does not have the strength to tell him her news. Nor, in fact, does she have the strength for very much of anything. She spent all that strength in the struggle to bring him back to her, in the hope that he might be her strength once more.

He once had the strength to pull through when all seemed hopeless. He once had the strength to fight back when he or she was treated unjustly. He once had the strength to give up his old life for a new purpose… and for her.

And now, he has strength enough to admit that he was wrong. He has strength enough to bring her comfort in the midst of everything. He has strength enough to be there for her, even if – for now – she cannot do the same for him.

He was always her strength, even when he didn’t know it.

And he is her strength still.

She struggles to find words to say in response to him, but every word she can think of seems inadequate. So she chooses not to say anything at all.

She rushes into his arms instead, taking him by surprise. She feels his arms slowly wrap themselves around her, pulling her tighter into his embrace, into his warmth, into his strength. She waited so long for him to come back, and now that he has returned, she will never let go of him again. She cannot imagine a place that she would rather be. 

He breathes slowly in and out. She is so close that he can feel her heart beat, and he wonders whether she can hear his. He has made the right decision, he knows, to come back to her. In time, she will tell him what weighs on her heart. But for now, he is content just to hold her. He cannot imagine a place that he would rather be.

Neither he nor she knows how long they stand there, holding each other.

All they know is that though things are not perfect, and never will be, at least for now, they have each other. At least for now, they are truly at peace.


End file.
